If you get your filthy lucre from an ATM, you may want to bring along some hand sanitizer. A study conducted in England found the average cash machine to be as dirty—and carry the same germs—as public toilets:

Experts took swabs from the numeric key pads on a string of city centre ATMs around England which are used by thousands of shoppers every day.

They then took similar swabs from the seats of nearby public toilets and compared the bacteria under microscopes in a lab.

The samples from both locations were found to contain pseudomonads and bacillus, bacterias which are known to cause sickness and diarrhoea.

[. . .]

Dr Richard Hastings, microbiologist for BioCote, the anti-bacterial firm which carried out the research, said: "We were interested in comparing the levels of bacterial contamination between heavily-used ATM machines and public toilets.

"We were surprised by our results because the ATM machines were shown to be heavily contaminated with bacteria; to the same level as nearby public toilets.

Whoever funded the research, I believe it. For one thing- think of what happens to a lot of the paper bills, for instance, in strip bars. And think of the number of people who, in spite of having been educated and looking decent- don't wash their hands after using the toilet. And then- people sneeze and cover with their hand. They just don't wash their hands enough.